Music in Review

CLASSICAL MUSIC

By Allan Kozinn

Published: January 16, 1997

Coaxing a Rainbow of Hues

From a Prosaic Horizon

Christian Zacharias, pianist

Avery Fisher Hall

A sure-fire way to make a point is to confound expectations, and that's what Christian Zacharias did at the start of his concert at Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday afternoon. Mr. Zacharias, a German pianist in his mid-40's often heard in New York as a concerto soloist but never as a recitalist, was intent on establishing his credentials as both colorist and philosopher, and chose Domenico Scarlatti's coloristically constricted and manifestly non-philosophical keyboard sonatas as his canvas.

Mr. Zacharias is by no means the first pianist to wrest these pieces from their Baroque moorings, but his reconsiderations were unusually bold. Often, his attacks were more forceful than Scarlatti's harpsichord and fortepiano could have withstood, and he had no qualms about using dynamic extremes, or drawing on a palette that ranged from gauzy to sparklingly crisp.

The result was a series of captivating, intensely dramatic readings that were so clearly thought through that objections on stylistic grounds would have been beside the point.

In selections from Debussy's first book of Preludes, Mr. Zacharias honored the composer's subtler coloration with sacrificing the drama in these pieces; his account of ''Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest'' had an almost Lisztian impetuousness. After the intermission, Mr. Zacharias offered an assertive reading of Schubert's Sonata in D (D. 850) that created the illusion of improvisation. As in the Scarlatti, tempos, textures and dynamics were matters of continuous negotiation between the music and the player. ALLAN KOZINN